Farming: 25-year Road Map

Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Lord West of Spithead

Monday 28th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

As I said, food production, diversification and improvements in the environment are the three central pillars of the road map that we are developing—we are extremely keen to ensure that diversification is part of it. One problem that many farmers have faced in the past is not being able to get through the planning applications that are so critical to diversification. Again, that is something that we are looking at as part of our reform of the planning system.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend the Minister will be aware that over 60% of the food we have here comes over the water to this country. Bearing in mind that we are about to have a national security strategy and a strategic defence review, can she confirm that Defra has been very involved with putting into this review the fact that we are an island nation and so need to ensure that we have security of the water over which all of this food passes?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

Food security is not just about what we grow in this country; it is also about what we import. We can never grow everything that we need, so having security of the waters is critical. I am certain that the noble Lord would support any work that Defra is doing to ensure that we have that security. Border Force does a lot of work as well, which is critical.

UK Fishers: EU Agreement

Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Lord West of Spithead

Monday 31st March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

The difficulty with negotiating for fisheries in the UK is that it is such a diverse industry. For example, fishers in Scotland will have very different needs from fishers in Cornwall—from those who may be catching crabs and lobsters to those who are after cod and pollock. It is a very complex area. The outcomes report on sustainability of fishing stocks, for example, is an extremely complex read—if anybody fancies it, I can provide them with a copy. But I completely take the noble Lord’s point, which is why we are very keen to work with industry to properly understand what it would like to see in the future.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

Does my noble friend the Minister believe that we have sufficient ships looking after our territorial seas and our exclusive economic zone—fishery and the things on the seabed—or does she believe, looking at the SDR, that we should get an increase?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I am not certain that we would ever have enough ships for my noble friend to be satisfied.

Storm Bert

Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Lord West of Spithead

Tuesday 26th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

That is an interesting question. All I can say, for my part and that of people I know locally, is that in the last 20 to 25 years, since the flood warning system was set up and made available to communities, we have taken the warnings extremely seriously. It is important that we have these systems set up in order that they can help people in advance. If that did not happen this time, that is something we need to look at.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, are the emergency services getting involved at all with voluntary organisations such as the Maritime Volunteer Service, which has a mass of inflatables, boats, people trained to work on water and bases all over the country, and could assist in these sorts of times after the event has happened?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

That has happened in the past, in my experience. When we had the floods in Cumbria, the maritime organisations certainly came together to provide support. For example, the RNLI and Maryport Rescue came in and played an incredibly important role with inflatable boats. They went into cities such as Carlisle, rescuing and supporting people. In Cumbria, mountain rescue is entirely voluntary based. However, we need to be careful not to start totally relying on volunteers. Our emergency services play a very important role, as do the voluntary groups, but we must not take them for granted. It is important that the work they do is recognised and properly supported.